144 KEW BRUNSWICK. 



anglers before reaching the portage. It is not a first-rate 

 place, for the brush is thick and the flies insatiable ; but 

 there is a delicious rushing brook, with a patriarchal cedar 

 overhanging its margin. Weary with the long day's journey, 

 we will hastily construct a camp after the approved Indian 

 fashion, by hauling the canoes on shore, turning them half- 

 way over, and supporting them by the paddles. Such a 

 shelter will cover head and shoulders, and in a fine night, 

 with a good fire blazing at the feet and the lower limbs cov- 

 ered with a blanket to keep off the morning dew, is all that 

 one can desire. After supper and pipes the eyes grow drowsy, 

 the eyehds close, and the senses are hushed to slumber by 

 the rippling lullaby of the ever-gurgling brook that flows 

 noisily by. Eising with the dawn, and refreshed by break- 

 fast and a bath before the inevitable black flies make their 

 appearance, the canoes are slid into the water, the poles com- 

 mence their pegging programme, and the voyage is contin- 

 ued through a channel that is narrow and winding, and 

 obstructed by jams of logs and fallen trees which often have 

 to be cut away to effect a passage. But presently we emerge 

 into a pretty pool, and then mount a rapid overarched by 

 trees which spring from picturesque ledges of rock ; thence, 

 traversing a shallow lake, we pass through a difficult channel 

 of almost dead water among sombre pines, and suddenly 

 emerge into the magnificent basin of Nictor Lake, the head- 

 waters of this remarkable river. 



The transition from the close confinement of the forest 

 and the narrow river into this broad and beautiful expanse 

 of gleaming water is most exhilarating. Mountains, varie- 

 gated with the vivid foliage of the birch interspersed with 

 darker shades of evergreen, enclose it on eveiy side ; and 

 close to its southern edge " Bald Mountain " lifts its massive 

 bulk to the height of nearly three thousand feet, wooded to 

 its summit, except where it crops out in precipices of granite, 

 or long, gray, shingly slopes. And in the lake itself, in the 

 shadow of the mountain, is a little, enchanting islet. This is 



